Archive for 2016

Back in 2013 we discussed some ways of making your website more accessible, which included a simpler web design and a responsive design for mobile. However, as time goes on, more and more criteria pops up that needs to be implemented. One of which that has had an increased significance over the past few years is website security.

A Brief Overview

With the increase of spamming sites and those that fall into other categories of abuse, Google wanted to be able to place authority and higher ranking on legitimate sites – essentially rewarding the good and syphoning out the bad. Not to mention that encouraging sites to become secure just makes the online world a safer place for everyone. In order to reward secure sites, in 2014 Google announced that the secure setting or the HTTPS domain extension is now being considered as a ranking signal. This meant that all professional sites, if they wanted to maintain a good SERP ranking, needed to include an SSL certificate – which can be found here – ensuring not only that their websites were secure, but that they wouldn’t lose search engine ranking. It seemed like a win-win-win scenario.

The Benefits of SSL

Ultimately, the advantages of having an HTTPS secured domain is that it does just that – secures your site. HTTPS verifies that the correct connection is being made between the website and the server and prevents other sites intercepting this connection or tampering with this connection process. The HTTPS also encrypts communication and ensures that browsing history, account passwords, or credit card numbers are all protected from being intercepted as well. In the end this ensures that your site is prevented from being hacked and that your website visitors are safe.

How to Implement SSL Security without Losing Site Speed

Of course everything has both a pros and cons list, and one of the major cons of an SSL domain designation, due to its extra portals of communication between servers, is that it presents speed issues. Since website loading speed is also a crucial component of the SEO ranking, and is in itself a ranking signal, therein lies the problem! So the challenge was to find a way to ensure that both ranking signals were satisfied without website performance being compromised. This requires reducing the number of connections or “handshakes” that need to be made to authenticate the HTTPS domain, which can be achieved through implementing:

HSTS

This stands for HTTP Strict Transport Security. What is does is communicate that the browser should only connect using HTTPS and automatically redirects HTTP requests to HTTPS so that the server doesn’t have to perform the redirect.

SPDY

Just like it sounds, this is a Google speed up module (meant to make your site speedy). It speeds up TLS connections by processing multiple requests through a singular connection.

OCSP

This stands for Online Certificate Status Protocol and verifies the standing of the SSL certificate (if it has been revoked or is still in the clear). The goal is to relieve the browser from having to cross reference this information to verify the certificate.

HTTPS Keep Alives

By keeping it alive, it means to keep the connection open, eliminating additional “handshakes” or the need for the browser and server to communicate and authenticate. These can have a significant impact on website speed.

Resumption and Session Tickets

These are basically requests that allows the browsers and servers to communicate faster by overall reducing the communication time. Essentially, it does this by assigning a session ticket to a site that a browser has already visited, that way when it is visited again, the ticket informs the server that the SSL certificate or encryption has already been verified, and the request to view the page resumes without the need for another authentication process.

In the end it is better to have a secure site, which protects your company or business and your customers. Optimising your server to quickly process the SSL so that your site can remain fast as well as secure, is the best method for safeguarding your ranking and website performance.

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Vivitek, a leading brand of visual display products, has today announced the NovoDS, an affordable and easy-to-manage digital signage solution. Ideal for creating dynamic visual displays for a corporate or public area, the digital signage content can incorporate text, photos, audio, video, and Web content in fully customizable configurations for a variety of settings. Versatile and flexible, the applications for the NovoDS range from corporate events and commercial spaces to educational facilities and public installations that need a quick and easy digital signage solution. Designed for maximum convenience, the NovoDS is 4k2k-ready for the next generation of high-resolution displays, making it a cost-effective ultra-high-definition solution.

Easy to set up and use, the NovoDS offers the convenience of content refresh over both the network and SD card. It’s so easy to use, that even non-technical members of staff will feel at ease with it, thanks to drag-n-drop template customization and a highly intuitive playlist editing function. IT Managers will appreciate the NovoDS too, thanks to it being easy to manage over a network. Despite it supporting large-scale deployments, both private and public sector organisations will appreciate it for being both affordable and highly cost-effective.

“Vivitek is committed to responding to the growing and ever changing demands for digital signage solutions. That’s why with the NovoDS, we have set a new benchmark in its class for performance, ease of use and value for money. It presents private and public sector organisations with a compelling offering that meets their need for a powerful, ultra-high-definition digital signage solution that can be install quickly and maintained easily,” stated Holger Graeff, Vivitek’s General Manager EMEA.

Suitable for applications and environments as diverse as government and public sector organizations, retail, education and hospitality, the NovoDS can play a significant role in boosting sales and awareness or sales, services or promotions by sharing relevant and easily updated information.

For user convenience, it boasts a standalone mode and a network mode. Its ease of use extends to drag’n’drop template customization and intuitive playlist editing. It also offers powerful device management and supports large deployments. Meanwhile, low TCO is assured as there is no software licence fee and future software upgrades are free.

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The Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 delivers a new level of unrivalled versatility for mobile business computing as the first fully rugged detachable notebook. Offering the best of all worlds for mobile workers, the Toughbook can be used in 6 different modes to meet every business need. With its glove enabled touchscreen, up to 14 hour hot swappable battery life and purpose-built Vehicle Mount and Desktop Port Replicator, the Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 is an unrivalled rugged mobile business tool.

Kitted out with a powerful Intel® Core™ m5-6Y57 vPro™ and running Windows 10 Pro this Toughbook manages to include the Intel® HD Graphics 515 chip and a 10.1” high brightness WUXGA (1920×1200) display featuring a capacitive 10 finger, glove enabled multi-touchscreen. Panasonic’s test show the computer can survive a 120cm drop and comes with Water and dust resistance factor or IP65.

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MMD, the leading technology company and brand license partner for Philips Monitors, will present some of its latest products at ISE 2016 – from 5K resolution to eye-protecting SoftBlue monitors. The Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) trade show is a show for professional AV and electronic systems and takes place 9-12 February at the Amsterdam RAI. MMD will be showcasing at the Philips stand 10-K136 and exhibits include the following products:

One standout highlight is the new Philips 27-inch LCD Monitor 275P4VYKEB with UltraClear 5K resolution. With 14.7 million pixels (5,120 x 2,880), the latest 5K resolution technology packs four times more content per screen inch than Quad HD resolution, for more dazzling visuals than ever. The new display is also equipped with PerfectKolor technology, which ensures factory-calibrated 99% Adobe RGB colour space and one billion colours. As well as brilliant colour and resolution, the display is thoughtfully engineered to fit the way people work, with webcam, MultiView for dividing the display space into multiple partitions, built-in speakers for great sound, as well as a non-glare screen and Flicker-Free technology for reduced eye fatigue.

Another high-resolution display on show is the Philips 241P6VPJKEB. Despite its modest dimensions of 23.8 inches, the monitor brings a real sense of space to users’ desktops owing to the sharpness and clarity of the 4K resolution. It also features 1.074 billion colours, 99% sRGB colour standard and integrated webcam and microphone.

Representing MMD’s line-up of Philips monitors with innovative SoftBlue technology, the 24-inch display 241P6EPJEB will be at ISE as well. SoftBlue technology protects eyes and reduces eye fatigue by mitigating the impact of blue-light exposure. It does this by eliminating blue light emissions at potentially harmful wavelengths, but without sacrificing the fidelity and quality of the original colour. Users therefore enjoy well-being for their eyes alongside professional-grade colour fidelity.

Furthermore, MMD showcases two Full HD USB Docking Monitors at ISE: a 21.5-inch model (221S6QUMB) and a 23-inch one (231P4QUPES). Thanks to integrated Ethernet, they provide one-plug access to desktop equipment, networks, intranet and Internet – via a single USB cable.

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It’s incredible to think that we are now in 2016 and sat-navs are yet to be an as-standard feature in most new cars. It means that you’ll still have a lot of thinking to do when you come to purchase such a system.

Taking into account the broadest range of factors – from the comprehensiveness and relevance of their feature set to their ease of use and price – we have listed five of our favourite sat navs presently on the market.

Although this, Garmin’s current range-topper is certainly a strong all-round sat nav – thanks to its highly competitive price and lifetime traffic that prevents you having to fork out for a subscription fee – it isn’t as intelligent as the GO 6000 at coming up with ways to beat hold-ups. Still, there are new models apparently on the way soon.

3. Snooper Pro SC5700 DVR

The SC5700 distinguishes itself by apparently being the first single device to combine sat nav functionality with safety camera detection and a DVR dash cam-style recorder. The individual features work pretty well, and although we found trying to control several of them simultaneously a bit confusing, we consider this model a good option if you presently lack a nav, dash cam or safety cam locator.

If you don’t have much experience of using sat navs but don’t want to choose a model that only boasts the most basic functions, the Start 50 could make a lot of sense. Its concise, easy-to-understand routing will certainly make your journeys easier and the lifetime maps are also more than welcome. This sat nav’s biggest strengths of all, however, are its ease of use and sheer good value. Downsides? You don’t get jam updates, but we can forgive that at this price point.

5. Binatone U605

The U605 is hardly the most complicated of sat navs, but if you really do just want something that you will you from A to B with little fuss, there aren’t many better options around. We liked the standard of this model’s routing, while its maps come with lifetime updates. However, there are arguably better entry-level five-inch systems available from the likes of Garmin and TomTom.

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WinnerGear recently launched Montar Air Qi Car Mount that is compatible with both phones and phablets. The team of young entrepreneurs has come up with another innovation that will make our life a bit easier. Featuring essential smartphone accessories in its line of products, WinnerGear has upgraded its Montar Car Mount with a superior version that supports wireless charging on the move.

“With a lot of driving accidents occurring lately, we have designed a car mount for mobile phones that has the strongest suction cup to keep your phone safe and charged while you drive,” said the company’s spokesperson.

A company aiming for innovation in smartphone accessories, WinnerGear has manufactured car mounts, waterproof covers and screen protectors in the past. For a safer driving experience, this company has released several in-car accessories that would take care of your smartphone while you’re driving.

The swiveling mount can be installed on windshields and dashboards. It can securely grip devices up to six inches and is compatible with iPhone6 Plus, Note 5 and the like. Additionally, it supports 2 Amp fast wireless charging on all Qi compatible handhelds and comes with a car charger with each package. Featuring a robust, aesthetic design, the car mount has the ideal size that does not obscure the road view if installed on the windshield. The mount itself can be charged via a car charger sporting a micro USB which can be plugged into the mount.

“This is great for smartphone addicts,” explained the company’s spokesperson. “This mount is perfect if you have to attend calls and meetings on the go. Your phone won’t fall off and you can drive without taking your hands off the wheel. The best thing is that the phone can stay charged.”

This contraption for cellular phones rotates a full 360 degrees and uses a patented suction cup technology which the company previously released in a similar product “Montar Car Mount”; but that model did not support wireless charging.

Furthermore, the mount offers rubber protection to phones to prevent surface scratches and has an easy release mechanism to withdraw the cell phone.

“You don’t have to push or force the phone inside the holds. The installation is pretty straightforward. You don’t even have to take your eyes off the road.” The company’s spokesperson stated while giving a demonstration of the product.

With smooth lock and release mechanisms, the handheld devices will be safe from falls in case of road bumps or emergency breaks. Also included with the product is the 3M pad. This handy accessory makes it easier for the mount to stick to surfaces with curves, making it ideal for use on curved and textured dashboards.

“With big screened cell phones emerging in the market along with rampant battery issues, Montar Air Qi Car Mount makes a necessary addition for car drivers using a cell phone on the go,” the spokesperson commented.

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LycaHealth, the new healthcare brand, today presented a donation of £150,000 to Cambridge University to support Sri Lankan students and improve public health in Sri Lanka.

LycaHealth’s donation will support two different projects to be undertaken by Cambridge University as part of the Lyca Group’s mission, to bring together people from all different backgrounds and be a part of the fabric of communities in which they have a presence.

The donation will be split in two ways: £50,000 will go towards the “Sri Lankan Language Fund” enabling the University to establish a dedicated Sri Lankan language scheme for a period of five years. The donation cost will cover intensive full-time summer courses, or part-time ‘in-sessional’ programmes at the university.

A further £100,000 will be used to improve public health in Sri Lanka through a pre-pilot project, run by the university to extend the expertise of the Sri Lankan Heart Infarction and Neurological Event Study (SHINES). Building on the University’s exceptional record of public health support in Pakistan and Bangladesh the donation will cover local medical staffing costs, laboratory supplies and equipment, travel and training expenses. The seed donation will mean that within 3-5 years, SHINES will have gained a sufficient evidence base to secure long-term funding from larger medical bodies.

Jocelyn Wyburn, Director of the University of Cambridge Language Centre said:

“I was fortunate enough to have the chance to visit Sri Lanka on holiday last summer for the first time and loved it! I’m therefore all the more excited about this relationship with LycaHealth and to have the chance to promote Sri Lanka’s languages and an interest in the country to others.”

Prema Subaskaran, Chairperson of LycaHealth, said: “We are delighted to be making the donations to such a reputable University as Cambridge, to implement study on these worth-while causes. The investment mirrors our ethos of expanding the importance of healthcare across the globe whilst bringing together people from all types of backgrounds.”

The donation comes soon after LycaHealth’s first centre was opened in London. The centre, located in Canary Wharf was opened by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. The Canary Wharf centre is the first step in LycaHealth’s growth plans, with further centres planned to open around the UK, South Asia and eventually Africa over the next five years.

Cambridge’s current £2 billion fundraising campaign for the University and Colleges focuses on Cambridge’s impact on the world. Cambridge will be working with philanthropists to address major global problems, as it has done throughout the course of its history. More than £590 million has already been raised, including the gift from LycaHealth, and 30,000 donors have already given to the campaign.

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TrackR bravo – The newest addition to the TrackR line. Never lose anything again with the coin sized TrackR bravo. Put it on anything! The TrackR Bravo is an intelligent tracking device that has just become available in the UK after its huge success in the USA. The gadget is now available in the UK in EE shops, John Lewis, Argos and Currys.

Technical specifications

App integration with Wi-Fi and Nest network to disable alerts from sounding when wandering around the house

The use of Bluetooth 4.0 for a 100 ft. range and Bluetooth Low Energy which consumes 50 times less power than Bluetooth Classic

The use of a replaceable battery, cutting down on lifetime costs and keeping the growing Crowd GPS network strong

The use of anodized aluminium, making TrackR devices smaller, thinner and lighter

Recently, TrackR founders announced partnerships with big brands. HP, Cross Pens or Mezzi can now offer customers the ability to utilise the scale of Crowd GPS network for locating their valuables worldwide.

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Last year we saw Panasonic putting out a pretty fantastic Viera television set the really blew away the competition with a feature set that included some of the nicest looking Smart TV software experiences available at the time. This year Panasonic have changed their focus away from pushing a software feature set in favour of display technology where their heart really lies.

A new super bright LED panel featuring wide colour phosphor technology which combines LED back lighting with a new colour filter system has increased brightness significantly without increasing the power requirements. This keeps the television as a low power option whilst maintaining a fantastic picture quality. This year’s 4K set has proved to be better than we could have imagined featuring crisp Blu-ray images on the panel’s generous 8.3 million pixels.

Some folks may pass this by as it is an LCD screen, nowadays most are all about LED. Panasonic is managed to produce a picture from an LCD screen that truly resembles in many ways the picture they managed to get from the plasma technologies that they so dearly clung onto for the last few years. It is a crazy notion that a company uses older technologies to achieve the best however Panasonic are certainly getting close.

Major work has been done to avoid the glow effect LCD TV’s sometimes suffer from when trying to show black, Panasonic has spent a lot of R&D time eliminating this glow effect and delivered a sense of depth and realism in the brighter content, the likes of which we haven’t seen before. Utilising clever light management Panasonic have been able to deliver deep blacks and can seemingly crush the bleed that can come from the side of the pixel affecting the next pixel. Each individual pixel seems to be able to offer its own degree of colour without affecting those surrounding it. An impressive technological feat that will probably be lost on the average viewer.

The Tom Cruise movie Oblivion is widely considered to be one of the best test cases for a screen and Panasonic have no qualms about showing off this movie on one of their screens. This is primarily because the television can handle it easily, and if I can handle that movie I can handle any.

The television itself is gorgeous with a minimal bezel surrounding the 50 inch screen. The stylish stand, admittedly that some may find impractical, possesses 3 HDMI sockets, 3 USB ports and an SD card slot alongside integrated Wi-Fi and wired network options. Changing from their in-house software the television now features Firefox OS as it’s main operating system. This has may concern some as recent news suggests that Firefox OS has become “a genuine open source project” and has been discontinued for smartphones. No word on the future of the television variant, and I hope that there is no plans to stop development as this it really works well. Minimal without being threadbare yet packing a lot of features that most TV manufacturers can’t manage to find a logical way to integrate without clustering of the user interface.

Functionality of this television is deeply impressive. We are given the option to simply be able to add frequently used features of the television to the main screen. I’m not talking about just a channel that is loved but a shortcut to your HDMI 3 instead of having to cycle through the TV/AV option on the remote control several times to get to HDMI 3. The helps greatly when wanting to use a Playstation or something a little more custom.

As a cord cutter I was skeptical of the television’s ability as a smart TV to function without an aerial or satellite feed. Firefox OS has an app collection that covers the main basis of television viewing whilst not stretching the boundaries. This was to be expected given the infancy of the operating system. Whilst most people will probably not actually use the TV’s inbuilt smart technology favouring Amazon’s Fire TV, Roku, Android TV options for their streaming needs there are some who will find the television’s operating system’s life span a concern as apps may not be supported for the long. For now, all is fine and like any emerging platform, only time will tell.

Panasonic are one of the first manufacturers to include a Freeview Play app. This app opens up the ability to view live television from all of the main UK terrestrial broadcasting platforms and integrate with their catch up platforms in a seamless experience to make up to the last month’s programming available at any time.

Adding to the Freeview Play option comes the Market. A diverse collection of content delivering apps that vary in quality however the main contenders are there. Wuaki, Youtube, Amazon, Vimeo and Netflix lead the way with around 100 others to flirt with. Catch up options are all pre-installed and might only need an update before use. Honestly, Firefox OS is beautifully convenient for a TV operating system, it’s hard to get right, Amazon and Roku’s hardware could learn a lot from this simple setup. In testing the 4K however I found there to be a bit of a scarcity of material. YouTube, Vimeo and Amazon are the only apps that deliver 4K out of the box. Netflix have some however I would have to change my subscription for gain access, as a legacy subscriber I get the HD for £5.99 instead of £6.99, to get 4K this would have to change to £8.99.

However judging a television cannot solely be based on the smart technologies inside. Many users never touch TVs in built operating system outside of setting the TV up. The Panasonic Viera is a display first and foremost and a phenomenal one at that. This is a television that people will stand in awe looking at and when you tell them how much you paid for it they will be considering going to the same retailer as you and picking one up.

Panasonic have lost the IPS technology they used in last year’s model and we’ve actually seen a bit of a u-turn on the viewing angle however this allows for a more impressive contrast performance.This helps Panasonic achieve the 4K Studio Master process they’re very proud of. Panasonic are hoping to deliver a similar experience to that directors see when editing their movies in Hollywood, on the master screens. Whilst most will probably not be able to tell the difference they’re taking it almost as a personal goal for the company to create the best-looking colour representation on screen this year.

If there is anything negative to say about the television is that the 3D included really feels like unnecessary addition that they don’t really expect you to use. Case and point, there are no glasses included in the box. Unfortunately I was unable to test the 3D without glasses and whilst content providers and exactly pushing 3D as much as they had been it’s likely someone who is actively going to purchase this television will have some 3D movies on amongst a media collection. Plan ahead, know where to get glasses.

Many will complain that they have too many remote controls in their living room, this Panasonic Viera will add two more. Oddly they both do pretty much the same thing. One controller is a standard long candy bar with the typical functions you would expect to find on a TV remote control save for a few shortcut buttons added in for convenience such as Netflix.

The second controller is the more interesting of the two. Much like last year Panasonic have be working on touch and voice controls. Lacking backlit buttons and a somewhat slippery exterior this little controller was more difficult to use than it’s bigger brother and be completely honest somewhat unnecessary as the touch controls felt a little unnatural. Certainly it is great to show off and voice control on your television is a wonderful addition especially when done right as with Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku however Panasonic haven’t quite nail this yet.

On the most cutting-edge television sound really isn’t taken seriously. The speakers here perform quite well however having the screen technology that is on display only makes sense that you plug-in a suitable system rather than relying on the inbuilt rear facing speakers. It seems a little crazy that it’s a given that people will purchase a surround sound system to go along with a television and the Panasonic Viera is no exception to this rule. If you want the most you will have to add something to it. The volume can go reasonably high and it renders voice is quite well. There was no noticeable disruption during noisy sequences however it just lacked that the immersive quality.

This TV is currently priced at £1,300 in Currys. Given that 4K TV’s can cost roughly doubt that this seems like an absolute bargain and if you purchase one you will be deeply pleased with your choice. Panasonic Viera maybe arguably slightly inferior to some of Samsung’s top offerings right now however Panasonic have a loyal customer base and those who are upgrading to this will be deeply impressed and thoroughly satisfied. Those who are not should really consider just why the loyal customers keep coming back to Panasonic.

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AOC, one of the top global brands in the display market, presents a 160 Hz curved gaming monitor that gives users a fully immersive experience for games, streams, movies and more – the AOC C3583FQ. When gamers feel surrounded by their virtual world it is a more complete viewing experience. That is exactly what the AOC C3583FQ does: With a radius of 2000 mm it is more curved than other conventional curved monitors, providing an outstandingly high level of immersion to gamers.

This exciting new experience is supplemented by an extremely fast refresh rate of 160 Hz, Adaptive-Sync technology (compatible with FreeSync™, with a 45 to 160 Hz range out of the box) and Wide Full HD resolution (2560 x 1080 pixels), which results in an ultra-smooth gaming experience without image tearing, stuttering, input lag or blur. In addition, this monitor features two HDMI (MHL) ports and two DisplayPort inputs, thereby meeting cutting-edge connectivity standards.

More enhancements for eyes and ears Equipped with an MVA panel that displays a deeper black and higher contrast of 2000:1, the way that all types of content looks is further enhanced when compared to TN panels, while still maintaining a considerably quick response time of 4 ms. Once the gaming mode colour profile is switched on, brightness and contrast will be optimised even more for games. Furthermore, the larger viewing angle of 178° is comfortable not only for the respective user, but also for spectators watching from behind at LAN parties and other offline events. Additional comfort features include the powerful built-in stereo speakers and the audio connectors.

The AOC C3583FQ will be available in February 2016 for an MSRP of £579.